Sculptures

We have reached week nine! This week we had a guest lecture speaker, Amanda Wojick, come in and discuss nine women who over 100 have really made an impact in creating sculptures. Furthermore this week we will be reading and learning about Louise Bourgeois, Richard Serra and James Elkins.

           

Amanda came to our class on Tuesday to discuss with us the importance of nine talented artists who stand out to Amanda as being the leading sculpture artists over the past one hundred years. I was intrigued by all the work that was presented by these artists and how they use their creativity and combine it with scale and use of space. All three of those characteristics really caught my eye when looking at the slideshow. Even though I really enjoyed all nine artists that were shown in the presentation, I would have to say that my favorite artists are Yayoi Kusama, Petah Coyne, and Rachel Whiteread. Yayoi Kusama was an artist on the presentation that I was really fond of. Her style of art uses a constant pattern such as polka dots but she would add the polka dots to any and all surfaces. Best way to describe it is obsessive. I can relate to her in some way because I can’t draw the most amazing pictures but I often find myself doodling and using the same pattern over and over again until my paper is covered with this pattern. It was inspiring to see her take something so simple as a polka dot and transform it into something that is mesmerizing and jaw dropping. I was also amazed at how she would use the space in a gallery for her work. My favorite was the gallery room that had lights hanging from the ceiling but all the surfaces in the room were made of mirrors, which made the room look almost like an infinite space of lights. The other artist that I found creative and yet inspiring was Rachel Whiteread. I was amazed at how she used her work to counteract space. She would take casts of rooms and pull the walls and ceilings off leaving behind a cast of the negative space. What I found cool was how she turned that negative space into a positive space that people can look at and visually see space that wasn’t there before.  Amanda’s presentation was awesome and I’m glad that I was able to witness these sculptures. Amanda’s presentation came to an end after showing us the new generation of artists that were inspired by the previous nine artists and I cant wait to see what comes from these next up and comers.

            This weeks reading is on an except from James Elkin’s The Object Stares Back called “Just Looking”. To be honest this reading was a bit heavy and long for my taste but I feel that I got a grasp on some key parts. For the most part though the reading was interesting. I found myself thinking of different ways I use my eyes, and how my stare or look is used in multiple ways. What I found interesting when James writes, “ The moment I spend looking at sailboats and thinking of nothing is really an oasis for my eyes, a source of nourishment that lets me continue my pursuit of words.” I feel that everyone does that, me especially. Its weird to read how someone, like James, can explain that in a way that I would have never even thought of.

            There are two artists that we are looking at this week and they are Louise Bourgeois and Richard Serra. Louise Bourgeois was an artist that we were able to see in Amanda’s slideshow and she was number one of the top nine women, and her artwork can prove that. Louise is an artist born in Paris but soon migrated over to the U.S. and started her career in sculpture. She is very well known and is considered the 20^th century leader in sculpture artwork. Her work draws a lot inspiration from her childhood. When looking at her art I noticed how she liked to change the scale on her work such as her giant spiders to her “Touch of Jane Adams” piece, which was relatively small. I liked how she would also add a tiny object to an object that is bigger like in “Spiral Woman.”

            Our next artist is Richard Serra. Richard was born in San Fransisco and his early minimalist work consisted of using steel and other industrial materials. After his early years in sculpture he moved onto created pieces that used more space and were bigger. A piece that I found astonishing was the “Charlie Brown” piece. I was blown away by the scale of the piece compared to the size of the person walking next to it. What I also thought was neat about “Charlie Brown” was the medium that he used which, were four huge sheets of steel. To create something that massive with that material inside a given space was insane. Another attribute about his work that I liked was the constant use of the material that he grew up using but using that material that is so recognizable in such huge artwork pieces.

Comparing the reading from James Elkins to Magdelena Abakanowicz she says, “ Art needs somebody to listen to it’s message, somebody to desire it, somebody to drink it, to use it like wine- otherwise it makes no sense.” I believe that quote from Magdelena is similar to what James had to say in his excerpt by this I mean how an object needs someone to stare at it and look or see what the object has to offer. “It seems better to say that the objects are trying to catch my eye.” Art has a way of being created but letting the meaning of the art come from the person observing it. Art has multiple meanings and looking at the work that was shown this week it is fair to say that many people “see or observe” objects or art in different ways. That’s what makes art so unique to a variety of people because each of us have our own interpretation of what art means. Another comparison that I noticed this week was the artist’s use of space versus scale. Each artist portrayed their artwork perfectly with the space that was given to them. Combining space with scale I think is very important when doing sculptures because we get to see the size and placement of each piece, which gives the sculpture more meaning. 

Space and Scale by Silk Road Trio

                           Michael A. Salter and Yayoi Kusama artwork